Claws, Scales, and Normal Life or What's left of It
by Dragon Courage
Summary: according to legend the dragon booster is actually a dragon with the ability to become human or viceversa. When Artha finds out that he is the dragon booster with the ability to turn into a dragon he isn't exactly thrilled. with his dad vanishing, leaving him to fend for himself and his little brother, Artha knows that once this race gets going there's no turning back evntual APxKW


Chapter 1

Artha Penn gritted his teeth, concentrating on his vid-game. Tailing his dragon behind the white one in front of him, he used the extra momentum to get ahead, gaining another place in his race. On the other end of the game, he heard Parmon curse as he got one more place ahead of him.

"Drat! How do you get so good, Artha?" Parmon's smiling face appeared above the game screen, courtesy of an extra screen that Parmon had somehow cobbled on. The screen was still on the fritz, however, proof in the form of a few sparks.

Artha scowled, swiftly brushing off the lingering sparks from his arm in irritation. The hot sparks didn't hurt, Artha had never been very affected by hot things, but the sparks tended to be distracting, and he wanted to win the vid-game race. Turning back to the game, Arhta said, "Parm, I thought you said you _fixed_ this thing."

Parm grinned sheepishly from the other side of the vid screen. "Ehehe, sorry, Artha. I guess it still needs tweaking."

"It needs fixing, Parmon," Artha retorted, frustrated at having little to no progress with the game in over a week of constant effort.

He and Parmon had been working on designing the game for a little over six months, and, while they were fairly far along as far as vid-games were concerned. But, this one glitch had them hung up for over a three months.

It was a problem with the double screens; they just wouldn't work well using such similar frequencies. Over the last several weeks, Parm and Artha had made plenty of small victories in correcting the system, but it seemed impossible. The double screen wasn't actually an original idea, plenty of large companies had attempted to perfect it, but none had been successful. So, it seemed very unlikely that two teenagers would be able to do what large companies couldn't.

Preoccupied as Artha was, it hit him out of nowhere.

Burning pain flashed through Artha's right shoulder, centering in his bones, it seemed. He yelped and threw the game halfway across his room, clutching his right arm. The episode, while intense, was mercifully brief, lasting only a few moments.

As he recovered, Artha vaguely heard Parm's concerned voice coming from the now sparking game system. Slowly, Artha uncurled from the fetal position he had taken in an attempt to stop the pain. Artha stretched out cautiously, unsure of whether the pain would remain away.

"Artha? Hey, Arhta, what's wrong? You okay?" Parmon sounded slightly nervous from the other side of the com system.

Arhta jerked out of his pain induced daze, crossing the room to pick up the vid-game, which was now constantly sparking. "I'm okay, Parm," Artha reassured his friend, his voice slightly hoarse.

"Are you sure? Because, you know, what you just experienced holds some characteristics to a heart attack," Parm said, sounding miffed for some reason.

Artha sighed, he could figure out why Parm was ticked later, right now, he had more important things to do. Like fixing the game console. "This thing's toast," muttered Artha as he examined the sill sparking, yet somehow still functioning com, game system. Raising his voice so Parm could hear him, Artha said, "I'll talk to you in a little bit, Parm, I gotta fix this thing."

Leaving Parm with no chance to protest, Artha pulled out the mag batteries, effectively killing the sparks.

Db db db db db db db db db db db db

Across the com, Parm sat back with a huff, deeply irritated. How dare Artha scare him like that, and then just write it off as nothing and bock Parmon out? This always happened. Parmon had been there when Artha had unknowingly broken his arm whilst trying to ride one of his father's dragons. Parmon had told Artha that it had to be broken; that there really was no other excuse for that kind of angle in the middle of Artha's forearm, but did he listen? No!

And worse, when Artha got home, Mr. Connor Penn noticed and took Artha to the hospital. When the nurse came back with the X-rays, Mr. Penn had kept Artha inside for an entire week. When Artha was finally allowed out of the house, he couldn't do anything other than his chores for the longest time. Which wasn't overly bad for Artha, but for Parm who had no friends and no siblings, it was very lonely.

And, now, here Artha was trying to do it again! Well, not if Parm had anything to do with it.

With and aggravated huff, Parm grabbed his bag, stuffed a few things in there- just in case he had to wait for Artha in the emergency room- and left with a call up the stairs to his parents that he'd be at Artha's house.

**A.N hi, I know I should really at least update my other stories at least once before I start another story, but i found this adorable little plot bunny hopping around in my thoughts and I just couldn't resist….. In my defense, it had sparklies- and they were pink!- all over it and it used the puppy eyes trick on me- how does a rabbit use the puppy eyes trick on someone, you might ask? Very adorably and cutely, that's how.**

**On another note, Im not sure if I'm getting all these characters right, it's been a long time since I watched Dragon Booster, which stinks, cause I can't find it anywhere… so, if any of these characters seem a little ooc, pls tell me and I will do my utmost best to rectify the problem. Although, Parmon is supposed to be the medic in my story, so he's supposed to be a little mother hen, although in my opinion he kind of almost was one in canon.**

**Oh, and this disclaimer counts for the entire story:**

**I do not own Dragon Booster… yet…. Its on my Christmas wish list…**


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